On the measurement of the flocculation characteristics of brewers' yeast

The capacity of certain yeast strains to flocculate is important to the brewing industry. So is the determination of the flocculation characteristics of a yeast strain. In this study we subdivided the flocculation characteristics into three phenomena. A proposal for the most suitable method to quantify each phenomenon is given. For this, four parameters (bond strength, floc size, settling rate and number of single cells) that serve as a measure to these phenomena have been studied. Next to this, attention is paid to the influence of environmental conditions (temperature, calcium concentration, pH and the hydrodynamic conditions during the test) on the result of the test. During this part of the study the flocculence of the yeast cells was constant, so the effect of the yeast on the results of the test is excluded. It turned out that the temperature of the medium and the hydrodynamic conditions during the test most strongly influence floc formation. Next to this, medium viscosity is important if the flocculation characteristics are quantified via settling experiments.